1. Field
Apparatuses and methods consistent with exemplary embodiments relate to an air conditioner, and more particularly, to an air conditioner provided with a modularized block.
2. Description of the Related Art
Air conditioners are devices for cooling or heating a room by circulating a refrigerant between an indoor unit and an outdoor unit. In order to cool or heat, a refrigeration cycle is typically applied.
The outdoor unit of such an air conditioner includes a plurality of parts, such as a compressor, an oil separator, an accumulator, a four-way valve, an expansion valve, a check valve, a solenoid valve, etc., and these parts are connected with one another by means of a pipe. In this case, each of the parts receives a vibration of the compressor from the pipe directly or indirectly and thus vibrates. Therefore, the parts have their respective natural frequencies, and, if the parts have the same natural frequency, there is a problem that the pipe is broken due to a resonance phenomenon.
A related-art method for preventing a pipe from being broken by minimizing such a resonance phenomenon is elongating the pipe connecting each part and configuring the pipe complexly. In addition, a welding operation is required to connect the pipe and the parts and a working space for the welding operation is required. Therefore, there is a problem that the size of the outdoor unit increases.
Therefore, there is a limit to the size of the usable compressor due to an unnecessary space occupied by the pipe in the outdoor unit, and thus there is a limit to cooling and heating efficiency.